The door continued to rattle violently as I now thought about the tube I had just dropped on the hallway, my only option now was to flee as fast as I could. I opened the window and tore through mosquito net making a hole big enough to fit. I quickly went through the hole, my right foot reached the frame of the window while my left hand held the wall to keep me from falling. Once my two feet where out of the house I reached for the small built in ladder that lead to the rooftop, originally designed to fill the gas tank, but now my only escape route. My left hand grabbed one of the warm metal rods that made the stairs and as soon as I had a good grip I swung my feet towards the other metal bars. My feet briefly slipped but my right hand landed accurately in the same rod where my left hand still gripped tightly. As soon as my feet where correctly aligned with the bar and now helped my arms with my body’s weight I heard the bedroom door finally give in.

I could hear it being torn apart and whoever…whatever was on the other side stormed the room. I took one step up the ladder and decided to look through the window in an attempt to explain this surreal moment. It was a man, torn clothes dangled from his body, blood oozed from a massive hole on the left side of his head. A yellowish bone pointed in an abnormal angle from his right arm, it was impossible that he was still alive from such grotesque wounds, let alone running and destroying doors. My eyes met with his, a hellish growl escaped his mouth as he charged towards the window, shattering the glass and lashing feverishly to try and grab me. His right arm caught a piece of my shirt, fortunately it was the one with that gruesome bone so it didn`t provide enough grip to pull me down.  Feeling his…that things hand in that near miss was the signal my stunned brain needed to climb as quickly as I could up to the rooftop.

Once on the rooftop I sat down almost falling from the shock, I hugged my knees and almost burst in a desperate stream of tears. Adrenaline and fear quickly sprang me to my feet; my tears would have to wait. Fuck…can that thing climb? if it can climb I’m as good as dead, think Alex, think, what’s your best choice? Go down to the small balcony enter the house and run downstairs, bad idea, I have to go through the small hall leading to my bedroom, if he catches a glimpse of me I’m fucked. Climb back down the ladder to the service room, I got lucky once with that grab, better not push my luck. Fuck! What do I do?! Jump on to the roof on top of the porch, jump down and fully throttle Bob out of here.

I started towards the ledge of the roof on the front part on the house when my mind was caught by the complete mayhem that was going all around. Several fires had started at different locations as far as the highway. A couple of trucks and cars were now the sight of a horrific accident not much further down the road, I could hear screams and growls all around me. A heavy screech coming from my back remembered me I had to get the fuck out of there as fast as I could. Sat briefly on the ledge and without thinking I jumped down on the small tiled roof that has maybe two meters below, a hard thud followed my fall and the recoil made my left eyebrow hit my knee. No time for pain, I have to keep moving. I got up and started for the ledge of that small roof, the fall was probably also two meters, but from here I could fall on grass, which would at least cushion the fall.

I was nearing the ledge and was almost ready to jump but…fuck! Bob’s key, where the fuck did I leave it?! Panic started running up my spine, for an instant, anxiety got a hold of me and I felt I was just about to die. In that instant that felt like hours, involuntary tears now mixed in my cheeks with the blood that poured from my eyebrow from the previous blow. My breath was so fast that my body could barely feel the oxygen feeding the muscles; a complete sense of the most pure fear started to quickly overcome any other emotion and slowly started to paralyze me. No, think Alex where are the fucking keys, where did you leave them, the table! The table beside the front door on the bottom floor!  I cleared the tears from my cheeks and in a burst of something between anger and adrenaline got me back together. Fuck that, I’m not going to stay here and do nothing; if I’m going to die here today I might as well go down with a fight.

I hurried to the edge of the small roof and lay down on my stomach with my head reaching out as far as possible to see if  could get a glimpse of the key. The entrance to the house in which mere minutes ago there was a glass door, now looked like a grotesque crime scene. Blood was scattered across the floor, so much blood, it painted the walls, the couch and I could even see some dripping from the hung TV. It was like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie, it was completely surreal. My guess was that the thing that was now trashing and growling loudly in I hope still my room and not the ceiling, had cut itself when bashing through the glass. Maybe the huge gash on its head was created by a piece of glass.

Keys, keys, where are the fucking keys, I scanned the table but the keys were nowhere to be found. I kept scanning the gruesome scene until I spotted the unmistakable orange key chain my dad had brought me from one of his vacations. I could hear my heartbeat as I gained the courage to take the leap and make a run for Bob. A couple of minutes later, without thinking about it I leapt from the roof to the soft grass below, miraculously I managed to land on my feet and without any further injuries. I ran as fast as I could inside the house and as I tried to grab the keys and propel myself in the other direction, the fragments of glass and blood on the floor made my feet lose all grip and sent me crashing to the ground.

As I hit the ground and part of the metal frame that used to hold the door I could hear movement upstairs, instantly I knew I had caught the attention of my assailant and it was a matter of seconds before he came crashing down to hunt me. In one single move I was back on my feet and running as fast as I could towards Bob. I could now hear the thing that was in my house gaining ground behind my back, it could have easily had two sets of lungs and the speed of an Olympic athlete. I jumped on Bob, turned the key and as soon as I slammed the throttle I felt something pulling my hair. Fuck.

Chapter One

Her helmet closed completing the opaque silver armor that glistened softly in the light of the full moon. The eye holes in the helmet lit in a soft honey color mimicking the color of her real eyes. Behind her, she could hear his helmet closing too; in previous encounters they had discovered that back to back was the most effective way to repel the enemies attack.  He clenched his fist twice and a swarm of millions of nanobots materialized a sword in his right hand, sharper than a scalpel, many enemies perished to its curves. He briefly swung it in a backward circle and its sharp curves made it sound like it could almost cut through air itself. She clenched her fists and another swarm of nanobots materialized a chain on top of each wrist. The first link in the chain was arrow shaped and as its sword counterpart, could penetrate almost any material on the planet.

A couple of revenant demons screeched and hovered above, briefly covering the moons light while waiting impatiently for their next attack. The cold night’s silence was suddenly broken by a thousand running feet; the floor alongside them briefly shook to the incoming foes. Mere seconds later, the air was filled with screeches and growls from the undead that were now visible and running towards them in every direction. She grabbed the first link of each chain with each hand and he tightened the grip of both hands on the sword. The enemy was now only meters away. Her chains rattled as they were shot from her wrists at speeds that made it almost impossible to see the leading link. His sword made a hollow noise as it penetrated rotten flesh and bones from the swarm of undead that now completely surrounded them. The first revenant demon howled furiously as it dived, with its feet nails aiming for the kill, the standoff had begun.

My life was completely normal, until the sundown of the twenty-seventh of April of 2032. I rented a house by myself, on the outskirts of a small town, two hours away from Coxime, the countries capital city. Woke up, had breakfast and took my motorbike, a red and blue motocross that I named Bob and that allowed me to have fun on my free time. The road to work was only 5 minutes away from my house or 3 if Bob was up to the task and I knew I could still break that record. I still remember we were fermenting bacteria in a 500 liter bioreactor that was supposed to keep me busy for the rest of the week. My boss, Alfred, who was and old school chemical engineer with a grumpy attitude, but a genius for industrial production processes, followed the news closely in the meeting room of the small production factory. I clocked in and greeted him to which he only replied “Good morning Alex” without taking his eyes off the TV. As I passed by the meeting room, the only thing I could hear from the news anchor was something about a new virus that had been constantly shown on the news for the past for months.

I had heard about the early 2000’s SARS, the 2020 nCov, and the 2025 H1N7 flu that had caused big outbreaks in the past but were always contained so my attention kept focused on the work that had to be done. Took my gear from my cabinet and immediately got busy moving levers, controlling air and water vapor pressure and sampling our bacteria for quality control. Luis, my shift partner and mischievous accomplice was already gathering data from the process which had started the previous day.  As soon as my shift started, it had gone by, I loved my work and Luis’s company made it very fun. He was one of those guys that love to joke around, prank people and make everyone laugh, he had such a light soul that not even Alfred with his stiff personality could get himself to reprimand him for his mischief.

We welcomed our relay, passed all the data gathered throughout our shift and left for home. Alfred who was commonly one of the last people to leave the first shift was nowhere to be found, I assumed he must have left for an emergency and went on my way. Picked up Bob and rammed the throttle on the almost empty roads that led to my house, 3.5 minutes, not bad, but it could be better. Entered the house and immediately removed my bra and dumped it in a basket with its brothers that had suffered the same fate days before. I dropped myself in the couch and proceeded to listen to the white noise of the TV in the background while I decided whether to take a nap or scroll endlessly on my mobile. I still remember the program, some dumb reality was cut mid show and breaking news about the virus were once again on the screen.

I decided to shut off the TV and go outside with my Stephen King to enjoy a cigarette and the sundown. Not much people lived in the small cluster of houses which I had decided to make my home, the nearest town was a 15 min drive and the nearest city was at least a 40 min drive.  The view was spectacular, you could see the mountains all around the horizon that depicted the valley in which that small town was located. The sun going down the mountains to the west, even though I saw it almost perpetually, never seized to amaze me and provided a soothing cover to relax and read a good book. The sun had almost set behind the mountains when a massive explosion shook the ground, the flames were instantly visible and expanded tens of meters into the air, maybe hundreds.

My first thought was that the bioreactors had failed and led to this catastrophe, but when I could finally focus on the source of the flames I could see that it was another company located in the lot parallel to ours. The sighting gave me some momentary relief and considered it would be a good gossip the next morning at work. A chill went down my spine as I started to hear tires screeching and…where those gunshots? I ran from the little front porch into the house and locked the door behind me, flew up the stairs that led to the second floor and closed the door to my bedroom. My brain was trying to adjust itself to the reality, wondering if it was a bad dream and was desperately trying to find the sanest answer.

 My thoughts where nowhere near calm when I heard a loud crash on the bottom floor, it could only mean that the glass door that lead to the porch had just been shattered, fuck, someone was in my house. Instinctively, I grabbed one of the metal tubes that helped my clothes hang in the closet. I dumbly opened the door to my bedroom and shouted with all my might “Who the fuck is there?! Get the fuck out or I’m going to hurt you”. My brain immediately regretted my decision and shouted back, “You’re a 172 cm, 65 kg woman and you’re completely alone… any psychopath can easily take you down”.  I threw the metal rod to the ground and made my retreat behind the cover of my locked bedroom door.

Seconds later I could hear..where they growls, gurgles? a sound that would never to this day escape the farthest corner of my mind. Something on the lower floor made a screeching sound and fleeted to the top floor, in an instant, loud banging noises covered the loud growls on the other side of the door. The door shook violently and I knew it would not stay shut for much longer. Fuck, fuck, fuck, what do I do, fight or flight…survive.